Motion sickness

[4RNB]

A friend has some flight training. No hours for maybe 6 months though. Today was the first time I flew with him, he had a fancy watch that he said gives electrical impulses to distract the brain from motion sickness, he wore it today for the first time. After 20-30 minutes he also put some kind of essential oil on that was also supposed to help. He looked pale but said he was fine though glad I had turned for home. His legs were good back on the ground but he described some disorientation.

My sense of things is he will never be a pilot. He was told the body adjusts and this will get better. I suspect it is keeping him from soloing...

Is there help for this kind of thing without Benadryl or Valium?

Does it get better?

Thanks.

 

[LesGawlik]

Yes. It gets better. No medication if you're flying or taking instruction.

Those watches stimulate the median nerve. There are similar, very cheap wrist bands with little plastic balls on them that also irritate the median nerve for the same effect.

Sean Tucker gets airsick the first few times he resumes practice for the aerobatic circuit. Many notable pilots had to overcome airsickness in the beginning of and throughout their career.

 

[dmspilot]

Desensitization works in the vast majority of cases. Frequent short flights are best, with the flights getting longer as acclimation occurs. Not flying for 6 months almost surely set him back. A big cause of motion sickness is stress and anxiety, for example, worrying about getting motion sickness might cause motion sickness. The watches and essential oils are a bandaid and don't sound like they're helping.

 

[p1l0t]

Air sickness is common, and can be over come quickly after a few lessons. If it persists though a career in flying is probably not a good choice. My first flight ever (as a passenger) was on a Delta to Disney when I was 6. I threw up. When we got there I said "I want to do that again." and I was talking about the flight I hadn't even gone to Disney yet. I've been chasing that high ever since. Still, if I got sick 10/10 lessons I would not be flying anymore. I have had moments though during training, like being under the hood for a long time in continuous moderate turbulence where I had to take off the hood and look outside because I just hadn't built up that kind of tolerance yet. If you're at the point where you should be soloing though and getting sick is holding you back... maybe flying as PIC isn't a great idea, sorry to say. I mean if you're throwing up on yourself it doesn't necessarily mean you'll crash but it could be quite distracting/dangerous. On a solo or as PIC the fate of that plane is on you. You have to have a clear head.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[AggieMike88]

The “fancy watch” could be the device that www.ReliefBand.com sells.

I have one and occasionally use it. And it does work to “short circuit” nausea during maneuvers.

 

[Pugs]

A friend has some flight training. No hours for maybe 6 months though. Today was the first time I flew with him, he had a fancy watch that he said gives electrical impulses to distract the brain from motion sickness, he wore it today for the first time. After 20-30 minutes he also put some kind of essential oil on that was also supposed to help. He looked pale but said he was fine though glad I had turned for home. His legs were good back on the ground but he described some disorientation.

My sense of things is he will never be a pilot. He was told the body adjusts and this will get better. I suspect it is keeping him from soloing...

Does it get better?

Was he doing the flying and still felt badly? Yes, flying more will generally make it better. Being the guy flying makes it much better.

 

[bbchien]

The attitude of the USN is 95% of it can be trained out.

 

[Pugs]

The attitude of the USN is 95% of it can be trained out.

Yep, I had issues in VT-10 when I started and a little more time in the spin and puke and more flying solved it, along with simple things like don't go flying on an empty stomach.

 

[SoCal 182 Driver]

For my first several lessons, I had motion sickness. I ended up chewing ginger gum and wearing the accu-pressure wrist bands. My instructor said it would get better, and it did. I don't remember how many lessons it was before the problem abated, but it couldn't have been more than a half-dozen or so.

 

[Lindberg]

I threw up on my first lessons, and I've felt ill since, mostly when doing things like aerobatics or spins. It happens. As others have said, you can get over it, but it requires exposure. And being in control of the aircraft helps a lot.

 

[Beaker’s Flyin]

If you do go see a doctor, be really careful what you say. Explain your motion sickness symptoms, but do not use words like nervous, anxious, scared etc. The last thing you want is an anxiety diagnosis, or some other obscure psych diagnosis to have to deal with.

 

[Lindberg]

If you do go see a doctor, be really careful what you say. Explain your motion sickness symptoms, but do not use words like nervous, anxious, scared etc. The last thing you want is an anxiety diagnosis, or some other obscure psych diagnosis to have to deal with.

Or better, don't go see a doctor for straightforward motion sickness.

 

[RadialGal]

I puked like Linda Blair my first few lessons then never again. I wonder if it is because for those first few lessons the CFI was doing a lot of the flying (in Central Florida, in the Summer). Yes it gets better, I have thousands of hours and never again got sick.